Is Your Home Game Legal?

Take a rake and the legal landscape changes dramatically in almost all states. Such was the case of Charles Winston in Cleveland, Ohio. Charles argued that he was merely entertaining relatives at his house when the police arrived and arrested him for “operating a gambling house” under city ordinance.

The testimony of liquor control agents, however, convinced the court otherwise. The agents testified that, at about 5 a.m., they approached the Winston home to investigate complaints of illegal liquor sales. The front door was open and four people were observed playing cards. The agent saw Winston take his “cut” from the pot and place it into his sock. The defendant argued that the persons in the house were all relatives and the money found on the table at the time of the police raid was simply his cigarette money. The court went with the liquor control agents’ testimony.

State-imposed limits

Other states that permit home games can be more restricting than Michigan and Nevada. For example, the State of Florida only permits “penny-ante” games. While these are not literally penny games, they are very low limit games and unsuspecting participants can easily violate the law without knowing it. A penny-ante game is subject to the following restrictions:

• The winnings of any player in a single round, hand or game do not exceed $10 in value.• The game must be conducted on a residential premises owned or rented and occupied by a participant or its common areas and includes college dorms and publicly owned community centers.• No one can take a rake.• No one can charge admission or any other fee for participation in the game.• No one can solicit participants by means of advertising in any form, advertise the time or place of any penny-ante game or advertise that he or she will be a participant in any penny-ante game.• A penny-ante game may not be conducted in which any participant is less than 18 years old.

Collecting your debt

Florida is typical of most states in one respect: A debt created or owed as a consequence of any penny-ante game is not legally enforceable. Only a few states, such as Colorado, will allow participants in a home game to go to court to collect their winnings.

A court in Denver had to arbitrate a dispute among friends as to whether a debt occurred at one home game could be enforced. Ervin Houston was hosting a game at his home. His friend, Michael Younghans and others, purchased chips at the start of the game.

When the game was over, the players cashed in their chips. This posed a problem for Houston, who didn’t pay for his chips at the start of play. As a result, he did not have the money to repurchase all the chips. So he paid Younghans with checks totaling $240. When Houston only repaid $75, Younghans sued him for the balance.

Houston claimed he did not have to pay gambling debts that were against public policy and therefore not enforceable. The court disagreed. While it noted that, ordinarily, gambling debts are not enforceable, social gambling is specifically legal in Colorado. This was defined as a game “incidental to a bona fide social relationship,” in which no one is participating as a professional gambler. Therefore, the debt was enforced.